I have a phobia of dolls, the kind that look like people. It started when I was a child, and my parents got me help. In time, I learned to tolerate dolls but I never quite 100% recovered.

I'm also very unsettled by creepy masks, like plastic Halloween masks you buy, the ones with not quite human faces. I wouldn't call it a phobia but they seriously wig me out.

Earlier this year, I was in a cinema waiting to see a film and they showed a trailer for the Liv Tyler movie "The Strangers", in which she's terrorised by three people... including someone in a creepy mask that looks like a doll and someone in a mask that looks not quite human.

Needless to say, it was not the best night of my life! I'm kind of working with my psychiatrist to try and beat the fear that's come up again due to this but I thought I'd say hello here also.

Strange, I looked on the net and found that the fear of dolls is called pediphobia, which is also the fear of children, there's a difference between dolls & clowns.

That reminded me of a cat that I used to have. He loved adults and was really cuddly around people, but would hide from a child, probably because of the way children pull cats tails & try to hug them too much. Food for thought. sconfused